BEH SUI HUI_0339244_INNER CONCIOUSNESS

CONTENT 1.1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1.1 HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE? 1.1.2 AIM OF THIS STUDY.

1.2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND

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1.2.1 THE DEGENERATE OF TAN HIOK NEE STREET 1.2.2 IMSTAGRAMMABILITY BASED TUORIST SPOT 1.2.3 CONSEQUENCE OF INSTAGRAMMABILITY TREND 1.2.4 NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON ENVIRONMENT

1.3 RESEARCH ISSUE

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1.3.1 VISUAL DOMINANCE 1.3.2 INCLINATION TOWARDS INSTAGRAMABLE DESIGN

1.4 SCOPE OF RESEARCH

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1.4.1 MULTISENSORY APPROACH IN INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE 1.4.2 LIGHT AND SHADOW

1.5 THEORETICAL HYPOTHESIS

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1.5.1 BEYOND FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE 1.5.2 MUILTISENSORIAL ARCHITECTURE FOR WELLBEING 1.5.3 STOPPING THE SURGE OF INSTAGRAMMABILITY 1.5.4 INCORPORATING ALL FIVE SENSES 1.5.5 AWAKEN HUMAN’S SENSES

1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

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1.7.1 A REMINDER FOR INTERIOR ARCHITECTS

1.8 LIMITATION OF RESEARCH 1.8.1 SUMMARY 1.8.2 LIMITATION IN THIS STUDY 1.8.3 POTENTIAL FUTURE STUDY

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2.1 INTRODUCTION TO MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE

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2.1.1 WHAT IS MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE? 2.1.2 IMPACT OF MISSING MULTISENSORY.

2.2 DEFINATION

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2.2.1 ROOT WORD OF MULTISENSORY 2.2.2 DEFINATION OF MULTISENSORY

2.3 THEORIES

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2.3.1 MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION STORY 2.3.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR A TWO-FACTOR THEORIES OF HUNGER 2.3.3 PROSPECT AND REFUGE THEORY

2.4 APPLICATION OF THEORIES

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2.4.1 A MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE IN SPACE 2.4.2 SHAPING HUMAN APPETITE WITH VISUAL AND AUDITORY 2.4.3 A MULTISENSORY GARDEN

2.5 CLIENTELE AND FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILTY

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2.5.1 MULTI-SENSORY SMART ROOM (MSSR) UTM 2.5.2 OTHER FINANCIAL SUPPORT

2.6 SITE MAPPING 3.1 CHOOSEN AREA AND RATIONAL

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3.1.1 MULTI-SENSORY DINING 3.1.2 HOW VISUAL AFECT OUR TASTE 3.1.3 HOW OLFACTION AFFECT OUR TASTE 3.1.4 HOW TACTILITY AFFECT OUR TASTE 3.1.5 HOW AUDITION AFFECT OUR TASTE

3.2 DESIGN FEASIBILITY 3.2.1 ODOUR STIMULATION CHAIR 3.2.2 SENSOR CHAIR 3.2.3 ROBOTIC KITCHEN

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3.3 DESIGN REASONING

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3.3.1 MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION DINING 3.3.2 SOCIOPETAL FORM 3.3.3 TRIGGER HUNGER AND APPETITE

4.1 CRITICAL REFLECTION

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4.1.1 IMPORTANCE OF MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION 4.1.2 STRENGTH OF THE PROJECT 4.1.3 WEAKNESS OF THE PROJECT

4.2 DIRECTION FOR THE FOLLOWING SEMESTER

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4.2.1 CONNECTIONOF MULTISENSORY WITH NATURE 4.2.2 SOCIAL INTERACTION 4.2.3 EMPTY SPACE

REFERENCES

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CHAPTER 1

INNER CONCIOUSNESS

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INTRODUCTION 1.1.1 SOCIAL MEDIA OVERTAKES INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE Over the last decades, the impact of social media has been a ubiquitous issue faced by many areas (Amedie, 2015). It certainly reshaped how our society used to work and even our economic activity (Dewing, 2010). Needless to say, this issue also exists in the architecture world as the usage of the word “insta-worthy” and “instagrammable” grows exponentially (as first introduced in (Kilic and Selvaduri)). “Insta-worthy” or “instagrammable places”, refer to those destinations that allow you to take stunning photos to post on your feed, or locations that were once visited by social media influencers. Tourism is unarguably a big business and also known to be very competitive, it has commonly been assumed that the incentive of labelling places with “instagrammable” predominantly rises from its financial benefit (Kasia, 2019).

Even though this can help to fuel the local economy but nonetheless has caused several major problems in the field of architecture that require immediate attention.

1.1.2 AIM OF STUDY In this study, we aim to investigate this issue in great detail by focusing on two objectives: (a) Pointing out the negative consequences of labelling places as “instagrammable” and (b) To draw attention to the concept introduced by Juhaini Pallasmaa in his book “The eyes of the skin” (Pallasmaa, 2012), which stated that the role of architecture being “the art of reconciliation between ourselves and the world” and not sorely designed to be visually appealing.

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FIG. 01 Layout of surrounding areas of Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Street. Most of the buildings around it were built in recent years and incorporated with modern or “instagrammable” looks. (Pink coloured area)

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND 1.2.1 THE DEGENERATE OF TAN HIOK NEE STREET In the beginning of this section, we would like to focus on a specific example which is the famous landmark in Johor Bahru, Malaysia called Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Street.

This street was built in 1920 (Ismail and Sciences, 2015) and consists of many pre-war built shophouses which make each and every corner of it full of historical value. The layout of the surrounding areas of this street is shown in Fig. 1. As can be clearly seen in this map, the famous Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Street is now overwhelmingly surrounded by contemporary buildings and different eye-catching sites (such as cafes and restaurants). These places possess an alluring appearance and thus have attracted all the attention from visualists and insta-famous people. The consequence of this is that the visitor flow of Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Street has decreased significantly throughout the years. This is mostly due to the fact that modern society can easily lose their sense of sight to the appealing looks of “instagrammable places”. Many historical corners have been torn down and replaced by “instagrammable” mural paintings and colourful container cafes to meet the demands of modern society (Ismail and Sciences, 2015). If we do not give adequate attention to this matter, all the historical buildings will eventually be renovated into such “insta-friendly” places and the spiritual heart of the Johor Bahru city will be gone forever.

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1.2.2 IMSTAGRAMMABILITY BASED TUORIST SPOT

1.2.3 CONSEQUENCE OF INSTAGRAMMABILITY TREND

This does not happen in Malaysia only, the British online newspaper The Independent once published a study in 2017 that revealed that two-fifths (40.1 percent) of millennials choose a travel spot based on its “instagrammability” (Hosie, 2017). This number only seems to grow recently. “Instagrammability” is now the number one reason to choose a destination, this indicates that the majority of the society is now obsessed with the “insta-game”, care solely about instagram-worthy appeal.

This issue leads to another tragedy that took place in 2018 when a sunflower farm outside Toronto first opened to the public. Hordes of people flooded the farm, destroying all the beautiful sunflowers in the process and left the owner with garbage scattered everywhere (Kasia, 2019). Another worth mentioning example is the Choi Hung estate in Hong Kong, which is a public housing estate that has become an “instagram hotspot” in recent years because of its vibrant painting on the exterior of the domestic blocks and the basketball court beside it (as shown in Fig. 2). This place is now commonly filled with tourists and crowds simply to take one “insta-worthy” picture to post on their social media. The rhythm of daily life of the residents at this place has been majorly interrupted ever since and the problem still remains to date.

Figure 2: Choi Hung estate in Hong Kong. The vibrant colours on the wall have become a popular “instagrammable” place for the tourists to take pictures.

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1.2.4 NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON ENVIRONMENT The issue of labelling places as “instagrammable” has also been discussed by other studies, for example in (Spence and Implications, 2020), the authors states that there has been little recognition of the growing understanding of the multisensory nature of the human mind and architectural practice has been dominated by the eye/ sight. The visionary Finnish architect Juhaini Pallasmaa had tried to point out this issue even twenty-years ago but we society clearly have not adequately responded to his concern, as he famously wrote: “The architecture of our time is turning into the retinal art of the eye. Architecture at large has become an art of the printed image fixed by the hurried eye of the camera”(Pallasmaa and URBANISM-TOKYO-, 1994).

As pointed out by another study in (Orange, 2021), the trend of “instagrammable places” has also caused serious problems in our environment. For the purpose of making profit, these sites usually take advantage of temporary and non-eco-friendly materials that may cause irreversible damage to our ecosystem. Majority of the society have now become accustomed to this phenomenon, and it is easy to get carried away snapping photos instead of genuinely ‘living in the moment’. Therefore, we once again emphasize that it is important to remember that architecture is not merely a two-dimensional visual image with the only purpose to attract eyeballs, but as the phenomenological qualities of the world and the human experience (Pallasmaa, 2012).

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RESEARCH ISSUE 1.3.1 VISUAL DOMINANCE According to a study performed by (Heilig and Environments, 1992), amongst the five basic human senses, the author believes that vision constitutes most aspects of our daily lives (70%) while the other four senses constitute the remaining 30% (see Fig. 3). But as mentioned in (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989), even though people are particularly aware of information that is presented visually, at the same time visual stimuli are effective in conjuring associated information too. To stress this point, the very ubiquity of this phenomenon certainly does not mean that the dominance of the visual should not be questioned.

VISION AUDITION OLFACTION TOUCH TASTE

Figure 3: Heilig’s ranking of the dominance of five basic human senses. Vision constitutes most of it with 70% while hearing is believed to have only 1%.

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1.3.2 INCLINATION TOWARDS INSTAGRAMABLE DESIGN Business and marketing strategies play an important role here. Architecture companies and design studios have been receiving more requests for “instagrammable” design from their clients more than ever. It is now widely accepted that in order to boost sales, one should provoke a visual sense of amazement, creativity, and fun. To make things worse, there is now an entire genre of online videos and articles, dedicated to share and rank the “instagrammable” destinations for people to visit during vacation.

For instance, in the latest version of Google Maps, certain places have been labelled as “instagramable” exclusively to attract more consumers and to push sales. These lists often involve locations that undesirably became “insta-worthy” by accident, such as housing complexes and once hidden spots in countryside, these private grounds being inundated with tourists looking for the perfect photo, much to the annoyance of local residents (Giulia Pistone, 2019). This further exacerbates the “instagrammable” trend and as a result, has significantly changed the role of architecture in recent years from designing functional spaces to merely fulfilling modern society’s desire and marketing plan. These issues must not be overlooked, as the architect Frank Gehry once said: “Architecture should speak of its time and place but yearn for timelessness”.

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SCOPE SCOPE OF OF RESEARCH RESEARCH

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1.4.1 MULTISENSORY APPROACH IN INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE Studies suggest that human’s basic five senses play an important role in architecture. This topic becomes highly relevant in current times, as society today prevails a vision-centric appreciation of architecture. While it is true that there is beauty hidden in each five senses in the context of the embodied human experience, to strengthen the existential experience of architecture, several realms of sensory experience must interact and fuse into each other (Pallasmaa, 2012). The scope of this research is thus to examine the negative influences of the so-called “instagrammable places” introduced earlier and to understand how the five senses work together to help demystify the complex network of human cognition of space. In this study, the author will attempt to define the characteristics of the five different senses and how one triggers the other.

1.4.2 LIGHT AND SHADOW We will also be specifically discussing how light, and shadow can play an important role in establishing mysterious, curious, and magical atmospheres. As pointed out by (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989), mystery results in the inclination to explore the space in order to satisfy an expectation either of overcoming negative feelings or of being somehow rewarded. Several studies have also proven that senses act as a buffer of stimuli and sensory stimulation helps in memory formulation and associations (Hadjiphilippou, 2013), thus the most effective way to allow full engagement between human body architecture space is to stimulate every single senses.

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LIGHT & SHADOW

THEORETICAL HYPOTHESIS 01

1.5.1 BEYOND FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Although human’s visualization indisputably plays an important role in human cognition of space, but to levitate human’s engagement with the architecture, all five senses must be considered. Overestimation of visuals must be avoided as suggested by Juhaini Pallamaa, architects must aim to go beyond mere functional architecture (Pallasmaa, 2012). The ignorance of incorporating different senses in a space will significantly decrease the architectural value of the space and “flatten” the architecture to solely an appetizer for the eyeballs. Our theoretical hypothesis is as follows: if we can build more interactive architecture that can resonate with humans both emotionally and spiritually, people will eventually acknowledge that architecture should not be simply an “instagrammable” site, but something we all inseparably belong to.

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1.5.2 MUILTISENSORIAL ARCHITECTURE FOR WELLBEING

To stress this point, as shown in (Harrouk, 2020), the space we occupy plays a major role in our psychological behaviour. The interaction between people and the spaces has been studied in the field of environmental psychology with the common belief that different spaces can generate different spectrum of feelings, such as inducing warmth and safety, or creating a positive and efficient working environment. This is something that cannot be achieved purely by manipulating a human’s visual perception but requires all four senses to be actively involved in the design. For instance, walking on wood timber flooring can introduce a sense of harmony, when compared with walking on marble flooring.

Noises can cause anxiety along with the feeling of being overwhelmed, but a peaceful rhythm at the workplace can embrace a soft atmosphere. As architects (or interior architects), we must acknowledge that the importance of architecture is to trigger physical, physiological, and psychological wellbeing but not impressing occupants of the architecture with its visual appearance. We believe this will lead to a decrease in the number of visualist in our modern society.

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1.5.3 STOPPING THE SURGE OF INSTAGRAMMABILITY

1.5.4 INCORPORATING ALL FIVE SENSES

As shown by a recent study, Instagram boasts over 400 million daily active users of which 50 percent make at least $50,000 annually (Anderson, 2017). Hotels that want to interact with this hyper-engaged community are hence forced to step back and view their space throug¬h the lens of Instagram. To prevent this from happening, we must improve early childhood art education and also to spread awareness to the public community regarding this issue. The former can be done by giving talks from famous artists/architects in school, while the latter can be achieved by assigning narrator to different architecture to help people learn more about the architecture and how one can appreciate the real incentive of the building.

If all five senses were designed to be incorporated into our space, we can considerably enrich human engagement with the architecture. We excerpt the following paragraph from the book The Eye of the Skin by Pallasmaa Juhani: “I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square; my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the facade of the cathedral, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my bodyweight meets the mass of the cathedral door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me.” (Pallasmaa, 2012)

1.5.5 AWAKEN HUMAN’S SENSES On top of this, we believe that by manipulating the colour tone of a space, it may potentially trigger our sense of taste. For example, red reminds us with the taste of spicy while green and yellow remind us with bitter and sourness respectively. Our sense of touch can also play an important role here, a rock texture background for instance prompts people to immerse themselves with the massiveness of the mountain.

On the other hand, our olfactory sense, one of our oldest senses in terms of evolution, was shown to be able to easily bring back our memories (Zucco, 2003). By integrating it into our design, it will establish emotional connection with the visitors and leave the visitors with a persistent memory of visiting the architecture. Finally, our auditory perception is strongly correlated to our subconsciousness, it has the power to soothe our nerves, embrace coziness and warmth, while something can also make us feel annoyed or stressed. After all, architecture is not a “look”, it has far less to do with style or “instagrammability” but to greet all our senses and make us feel alive.

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RESEARCH QUESTION

In this section, we outlined the four main research questions that we hope to answer in this study.

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What is the contribution of sensory experience on architecture as opposed to mere functional architecture?

How do five senses help reveal the story behind architecture and demystify the complex system of human cognition of space?

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What is the role of shadow and darkness in architecture in contrast to illumination and light?

The first question arises as to investigate how the five major human senses work coherently to establish emotional or spiritual connection between human and architecture as compared to mere functional architecture which the modern society has been prevailing. The second question aims to determine the connectedness between five human senses, for example how one sense can trigger another sense. Our third question discusses the origin of ocularcentrism and what causes the exacerbation of existing problems. For the last question, we seek to understand how shadow and darkness can enrich human interaction with architecture in general (see Fig. 4).

FIG. 04 Figure 4: Light and shadows create a mysterious landscape in SHC Old Factory Hall. The consequence of this is the feeling of anticipation and consequently the willingness for one to explore the space to overcome that.

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1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH The issue of ocularcentrism in architecture as first pointed out by Juhaini Pallamaa roughly 20 years ago hasn’t been receiving adequate attention from the public and the architecture community. The result is a legacy of highly “instagramable” architecture/buildings that lack the quality of generating emotional engagement and pleasing other senses than vision (Pallasmaa and URBANISM-TOKYO-, 1994). It is now accepted as a fact that the majority of architecture company’s main concern has gotten sidetracked. To fulfil the desire of modern society and driven by marketing plans, a significant number of efforts have been put into designing visually appearing buildings, while the time and money being spent on realizing Juhaini Pallamaa’s architecture concept is pitiful. This study intends to shine a light on this topic and spread awareness to stop vision-centric appreciation of architecture, but rather to create more sensitive, engaging multisensorial architecture.

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1.7.1 A REMINDER FOR INTERIOR ARCHITECTS If this issue continues being overlooked by the community, it will eventually change the path of architecture in an irreversible way. Imagining for the next generation of young architects, solely focusing on designing “instagrammable” sites.

We can anticipate ancient architecture and buildings with historical meaning being torn down in replacement with new cafes listed on the top “insta-worthy” ranking. This is undoubtedly a big topic with different areas involved, for example one may expect the government and big corporations will certainly have a huge impact on this matter. But leave aside that, as an architect (or interior architect), we should be constantly reminding ourselves in this critical time, we should always aim beyond the shallow concept of “architecture is merely for visual seduction” by establishing “depth” into our design and stimulating multi-sensory imagination.

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LIMITATION OF RESEARCH 1.8.1 SUMMARY This study mainly focuses on the discussion of how to create a contemporary design that incorporates human multi-sensory systems because naturally we sense space through our entire body primarily. We attempt to come up with an applicable definition on how different senses work systematically in architecture design. As the phenomenon of “instagrammable places” exacerbates, it has significantly altered the role of architecture design. We believe one can change the mindset of modern day visualists to some extent with appropriate approaches and teach our society the correct way to treat architecture.

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1.8.2 LIMITATION OF THIS STUDY

1.8.3 POTENTIAL FUTURE STUDY

However, this study has potential limitations, and it is important to point out them for the readers. First of all, the subject of the impact of environmental factors on mental wellbeing is not considered in this study. Secondly, this study does not aim to address potential methods or treatments to promote mental health by manipulating interaction between human’s senses and spaces (which is a research topic in environmental therapy).

Further study may focus on conducting experiments to investigate how treating all five senses on equal footing in architecture design can provide new perspectives. One worth mentioning study is (Bez Cardoso, 2020), where the effects of light and shadow in architecture have been examined in great detail with excellent experimental data. The author believes that by manipulating light and shadow to some degree, one can create a mysterious atmosphere in the environment leading to more engagement with the space via the process of exploring the space through all five human senses combined.

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CHAPTER 2

INNER CONCIOUSNESS

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INTRODUCTION 2.1 INTRODUCTION TO MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE 2.1.1 WHAT IS MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE It is a well-known fact that humans rely more on visual information, this means that we tend to think, reason, and imagine visually. This fact may not be considered as an issue in other fields of study but when it comes to architecture practice, however, we cannot allow our visual sensory domain to take over our design imagination such that we exclusively produce design for the sense of sight. In order to advocate our health and well-being, considering the impact of other four senses: olfaction, audition, tactility, and taste is essential. On top of that, interior architecture is not something merely for us to register as visual images, but something we encounter as multisensory lived experiences (Jhamaria, 2015). If we incorporate multisensory into our design, the quality of a space can be emphasized and the relationship between its occupants can be strengthened significantly. The user perception of any architecture should be a voyage of self-discovery. Any work of architecture or design has to try to harmonize with the perceiver. The only way to appreciate this to the full extent, is to acknowledge that all five senses are inevitably indispensable.

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2.1.2 IMPACT OF MISSING MULTISENSORY This has become a highly relevant topic in current times where social media plays a major role in society (SSIM, 2019). The rise of Instagram has certainly changed people’s perception of architecture and buildings, the consequence of this is the surge of the so-called “instagrammable places” (Arnold, 2018). A majority of design studios have gone side-tracked to catch up with the “instagrammable” trend, they aim to design and create spaces that merely focus on visual appearance only to fulfill modern society’s desire. People living in the modern era are only concerned about whether their photographs posted on social media can receive enough attention and they do not show any appreciation of architecture and buildings. This issue, sometimes referred to as “architecture flattening” has existed for decades but yet received adequate action. The visual appearance of architecture is nonetheless important but to allow its beholder to engage with it to the fullest, all five senses must work coherently. For example, one can experience a dilation of time during the visit, to explore the space with his/her sub-consciousness and to create unique memories with the space not only visually but in the form of other senses too (Karnik, 2015). We will discuss how this is achievable by controlling the materiality, scent, taste, colour, darkness, and natural lights of the space in a collaborative manner in this study.

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2.2

DEFINITION 2.2.1 ROOT WORD OF MULTISENSORY

The prefix “multi-” comes from the Latin world “multus” and is used to describe something that comprises many things of a kind (Wordpandit, 2021). On the other hand, the origin of the word “sensory” is from the Latin word “sentire” which can be understood as “to perceive and feel” (Vocabulary.com, 2021).

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2.2.2 DEFINITION OF MULTISENSORY

The five human senses such as olfaction, audition, tactility, taste, and visualization constitute our multisensory system. This is essential as it helps us form a solid, comprehensive and robust perception by processing information from multiple sensory stimuli in contrast to relying solely on vision. The five senses must not be treated individually. They work coherently to provide us with a robust and clear awareness of the environment. Multi-sensory experiences also allow information to be stored in multiple areas of the brain, such that one can achieve a greater memory retention, accuracy in recall, and memory retrieval (Matusz et al., 2017). A daily example of this is how we can always remember our mother’s cooking, this is because sampling the food is a multisensory experience where we can smell, taste, and feel the good texture in our mouth. We rely on our multisensory ability to communicate with our world around us through a comprehensive understanding.

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2.3 THEORIES

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01 2.3.1 MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION THEORY

Multisensory integration theory describes the processes in the brain that allow us to take

information that we received from all 5 senses, analyse it and respond appropriately. It also explains the process by which humans register, modulate, and discriminate sensory signals to produce purposeful and adaptive behaviours in response to the environment. Integration inputs from multisensory systems are proven to increase perceptual sensitivity and enable better detection in contrast to relying solely on vision (Ohshiro et al., 2011). This theory has been studied intensely in many fields, for example psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Many models have been established to characterize multisensory integration, but it still remains a heated discussion amongst different fields. This theory is important because study shows that it contributes to the understanding of how our sensation can affect learning, social-emotional development, and neurophysiological processes (Smith Roley et al., 2007).

We aim to apply this theory on our design along with the results from some studies. The goal is to create a spatial environment such that its occupants can engage naturally with the space through their multisensory system. We hope the architecture can leave the visitors with vague memories rather than just a two-dimensional picture to post on their feeds. Recalling our early stages in life, we always try to touch and bite everything we see spontaneously, that is because engaging with the environment through our multisensory system is the natural way for us to gain knowledge of the environment. As we grow up, our vision starts to dominate over other four senses, but studies have shown that, a complete multi-sensory experience besides helping us gain more knowledge of our surroundings, it also allows us to learn more about our existence and other human beings. With a better understanding of ourselves and our environment, we can deepen our inner experience so that a sense of appreciation can be developed which adds value to life. To quote Pallasmaa: “The way spaces feel, the sound and smell of these places, has equal weight to the way things look. It is very difficult to photograph acoustics, scents, or tactility, but it is hard to forget the distinctive things we hear, smell and touch. The senses give us something to remember.” (Architects, 2015)

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02 2.3.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR A TWO-FACTOR THEORY OF HUNGER Studies show that the visual representation of food can affect our appetite to a certain extent. The colour and the look of the food is capable of influencing human’s taste perception. Researchers agree that depending on the colour of a food, it may be perceived as appealing or unappealing to us (Milner, 2012). Furthermore, just by looking at the food is sufficient to cause all sorts of biochemical reactions in our body. For example, the mere sight of food is capable of causing the glands in our mouth to increase saliva production. Some studies also show that the colour yellow can stimulate our appetite as yellow is usually associated with happiness which relates to serotonin, a feel-good hormone (Kari Hartel R.D., 2019). Some colours have also been found to be able to manipulate the flavour of the food, for example the experiment was conducted to ask the subjects to drink tasteless but red-dyed water and a majority of them had tasted sweetness.

Aside from the ability of vision to manipulate our appetite, our auditory perception has shown a similar capability. The autonomous sensory meridian response, commonly known as ASMR is an act that can induce a tingling sensation in our brain through amplified sounds of different kinds of human action. It was pointed out that listening to ASMR of people biting, chewing and in general eating something can trigger hunger and affect one’s appetite (Lee, 2018). Smell and taste are closely linked as our taste buds identify taste while simultaneously smell is perceived by the receptors in our nose. This information is integrated and analysed in our brain so that we can recognize and appreciate the food. This statement is supported with some studies showing that odour stimuli can play a major role in perception of food flavour (Bartoshuk, 2021). It was shown to have the effect of increasing rated appetite and induce salivation and release of gastric acid and insulin.

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03 2.3.3 PROSPECT AND REFUGE THEORY There is no doubt that our sensory system was developed in the first place mainly to gain knowledge of the natural world around us. This includes tactile experiences of nature, experiencing planting and sensing the tactility of plants, seeds, soil, and flowers. All five senses are involved unsurprisingly during our engagement with the natural world. Exposing ourselves to nature will not only benefit ourselves emotionally but also bring advantage to our physical well-being. For example, several studies have shown that it can reduce blood pressure, help regulate a normal heart rate, relax muscle tension, and decrease the production of stress-related hormones (Delagran, 2011). One the other hand, through growing and consuming natural foods, the tastes of nature have been shown to have connection with several health and well-being benefits. Evidence of the effectiveness of natural experiences is also emerging beyond our five basic senses (Franco et al., 2017). In particular, both adults and children are encouraged to open their senses to the natural world around them, and to use all 5 senses to extend their awareness of the surroundings. Doing so helps us relate to the natural world mindfully, which invites calm and quells anxiety (Online, 2014).

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2.4

APPLICATION OF THEORIES

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01 2.4.1 A MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCE IN SPACE This project aims to create a space for stimulating our multisensory system which is able to provoke our senses without excessive stimulation. Different lighting, scents, colours, and sounds will be incorporated in the design to create an amazing exploration and sensory experiences for the visitors. Our design will begin by focusing on stimulating the users’ visual perception with the exclusion of all other sensory stimuli, but generally increase towards other senses one at a time, while the sense of taste will be the last to be incorporated. A multisensory garden is placed at the end to allow all five human senses to be involved after the users have understood the significance of each individual senses.

VISUAL

TASTE

Architecture is commonly regarded as a visual phenomenon in the modern era, this is the main reason behind why so many buildings were designed to please the eye but fail to delight the body as a whole. Eyes are responsible for absorbing the visual qualities of space and stimulating other senses at the same time. In order to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the visual sense, light-related properties of the space will be used to create mystery such that the visitors are encouraged to explore the space. Mystery is a subjective quality and was shown to cause dichotomous, or sometimes overlapped feelings. Study also shows that there are several ways to achieve a mystery feeling in space (Bez Cardoso, 2020). The most straightforward way is to include partial occlusion in the space, for example a circular tunnel will be implemented in our design, because of its unique geometric structure, one’s vision will be screened, and a mystery feeling can be created.

Another way is to reduce the openness in space, so the tunnel itself will only allow a narrow vision accompanied with fading light. Purple-coloured glass tiles with floral patterns will be used to allow the penetrated light creating a mysterious atmosphere as purple colour is usually related to spiritual and mysterious qualities (Cherry, 2021). Artificial fog will also be implemented to further enhance the mysterious atmosphere by blurring the view.

Our sense of taste can easily be neglected in design because we often think it is only relevant to restaurants. However, study has shown that the sense of taste also plays an important role in remembering and recalling our memory, for instance, each city has its own taste of flavouring and seasoning ingredients, local foods and their corresponding names recall the taste of bitterness, sweetness and saltiness to our body and reawaken our memory. This is supported by a study showing the existence of a functional link between the taste memory centre in our brain and the brain region that is responsible for encoding time and place we experienced the corresponding taste (Haifa, 2014). So, to achieve a long-lasting memory for the visitor, the sense of taste will be included and considered in our design.

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The loss of senses in contemporary architecture can be resulted from the ignorance of acoustic intimacy to some extent.

A significant amount of buildings today were designed to absorb and censor the echo completely. However, an echo not only yields the spaces with their identity but also connects us to them, for example in a narrow street or inside an empty cathedral. This phenomenon is described

by Juhaini Pallasmaa as: “Our ears have been blinded” (Pallasmaa, 2012). Auditory awareness allows one to orient in and navigate, in the case of darkness or visual disability, it dominates our vision. Just like how visual embellishments can make space aesthetically pleasing, the same will happen with our auditory perception. By adding aural richness into a space, aural embellishments can also be achieved similarly. To illustrate this in our space, the circular tunnel we introduced earlier will be connected to a dark walkway. Sound from the surrounding rooms will be able to travel into this dark walkway, stimulating the users’ curiosity towards exploring other rooms and the succeeding activity when they leave this walkway. Sound from the surrounding rooms will be able to travel into this dark walkway and create echoes in it, stimulating the users’ curiosity and a feeling of uneasiness so that they will be encouraged towards exploring other rooms and the succeeding activity when they leave this walkway.

AUDITORY

The physical definition of sound is the longitudinal compression waves transmitted through a medium such that the particles (air or water) move parallel to the propagation of the wave. It then triggers our hearing receptors to send signals to our auditory cortex in our brain. Several studies have shown that our auditory perception is naturally linked to our emotional processes and conversely our emotions can affect how we process sound, for example we will feel anxiety and run quickly when we suddenly hear an alarm sound (Psychol, 2020). Besides sounds that make us panic or cause anxiety, there are sounds that were shown capable of relaxing and lightening our mood. For example, we will implement natural sounds in our design to act as a healing element in the space (Tomasberg, 2020). The evidence that natural sound can be a refresher for the brain comes from the study that people feel 30% more relaxed and anxiety levels dropped after listening to woodland sounds for one minute (Lynch, 2021). In addition to that, our body’s natural fight-or-flight instinct was shown to be suppressed with calming and tranquil sounds of the great outdoors.

The natural sounds can serve as a perfect medicine to distract ourselves away from day-to-day anxiety and society worries.

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OLFACTION

TACTILITY

The importance of olfactory is usually ignored in architecture design, but smell can constitute a major part of how we craft the environment. Smell can act as a warning or bring us pleasure and has overall a range of meanings to people, to memories and endless possibilities (RoedigerIII, 2017). The smell of simmering mince, garlic, onion, and other ingredients remind us of the warmth of family dinner from our childhood memories. Study has shown that smell can serve as an important role in tying us to a specific memory, place and building. In our design, we will incorporate this aspect of multisensory experience to allow users to engage more fully with the space while also creating unique memories with the space.

Tactility has been developed as an alternative to our two-dimensional vision. Study has shown that it is primarily associated with a range of phenomenological notions for instance, place, corporeality, intimacy, sensuousness, and also craftsmanship (Lee, 2002). Tactile sensuality can be incorporated in the design practice through the material used in the space. It plays a dual role in architecture with the first being expressing the quality of a given material and the second with bringing a particular quality to light. Even though we usually perceive these two qualities visually at the same time, the two are distinct as only the first has tactile associations.

Touching is not merely limited to contacting an object and gaining knowledge of its shape, it also has a huge impact on thermal comfort. Our sense of touch allows us to feel the humidity and temperature and such factors are important to the overall comfort in a space. We will provide visitors with tactile experiences on different textures, temperature, and shapes in our design. This will allow them to gain knowledge of the space without relying on their vision and have a better understanding of the importance of our sense of touch.

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02 2.4.2 SHAPING HUMAN APPETITE WITH VISUAL AND AUDITORY

All five senses are important when it comes to a human’s appetite. The combination of vision, sense of taste and smell enable ourselves to experience the real flavour of the food in front of us. No dining experience will be nearly as complete if these were ignored. Restaurant managers are usually aware of this, and they always make sure the correct combination has been applied to create a memorable dining experience for their customers. By controlling the colour of the environment according to food taste types can enhance human’s tasting experience, such as red colour increases the taste of sweet, orange increases the taste of sour etc. In addition to that, immersing all various food aromas in a localized space has shown to be capable of stimulating hunger and increasing human appetite. Our perception of flavour is a multisensory experience, and the sound plays a major role in this. The overall atmosphere is shaped by the background music and our auditory perception can help us identify the texture properties of not only us but also someone else nearby who happens to be eating. This includes information on how crunchy or crispy a food is.

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03 2.4.3 A MULTISENSORY GARDEN A multisensory garden is all about stimulating and engaging all five senses together simultaneously. This garden will not only allow us to connect yourself to the natural world, but encourage you to become more aware of your environment and your response to them. Spending time in this multisensory garden can in overall help enhance your sense of wellbeing, reduce stress, and relax your mind. Babbling brooks, songbirds singing, or rainfall are examples of natural sounds which can be quite soothing to us. Therefore, we will implement calming sounds of nature in this multisensory garden to help relieve stress. Different flowers can be found planted in this garden for a better olfactory experience, as suggested by the study showing the effect of the scent of pine includes lowering depression and anxiety, while the lavender can help relax us (Air-Scent, 2019).

The natural world is captivating to most of us, and so many benefits come with its beauty.

When we encounter the natural landscapes with our eyes, it not only enlightens our mood but can also make ourselves feel better emotionally. Touching textures, shapes, and patterns associated with the natural world also gives us a sense of relaxation, some examples of this are touching the leaves of a tree, standing barefoot in a cold stream, and feeling the wind with arms wide open. Freshly picked fruit will also be available in this multisensory garden because taste was shown to have the ability to solidify our memory and emotion associated with the space.

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2.5

CLIENTELE & FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

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2.5.1 MULTI-SENSORY SMART ROOM (MSSR) UTM

The goal of this study is similar to the Multi-sensory Smart Room (MSSR) in University Technology Malaysia (UTM) is the first multi-sensory room in Malaysia that operates with an automated monitoring system using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. It was designed as an alternative to the Snoezelen Multi-Sensory Room.

The goal is to spread awareness that the phenomenon of neglecting human senses might be partially to blame for a few problems faced by many in society today, including everything from sick-building syndrome (SBS) to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and also autism spectrum disorder (ASD). MSSR aims to minimize the symptoms of ASD through the special design of multisensory experience spaces (Ali, 2019 ).

This study will only be more successful by establishing a partnership with MSSR at UTM, our goal can be achieved in a more effective way. Although our project is not primarily focused on providing therapy through multisensory experience, this collaboration is definitely going to help gaining a better understanding on this topic.

2.5.2 OTHER FINANCIAL SUPPORT Financial sustainability of this space has been planned well, the visitors are required to purchase their tickets which will include one meal during their visits. The entrance ticket for adults will be RM30, kids RM25 and senior citizens RM10. The visitors can also purchase ticket for the special session: “Perfumery-Make your own unique fragrance”. This includes an introductory session to experience a perfume-making workshop to allow the visitors to learn the basics of perfumery through this workshop. The ticket price for this special session will be RM15. The profit earned from these multiple sources will help maintain and expand this business for the opening of new branches. These new branches will be located across different countries which will help promote the importance of multisensory to the public.

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2.6 SITE MAPPING

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CHAPTER 3

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DESIGN RATIONAL 38

CHOOSEN AREA & RATIONAL

3.1

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3.1.1 MULTI-SENSORY DINING Eating plays an essential role in our life, it does not only allow us to survive but can also provide us pleasure. The act of eating food is an intensely sensory experience which involves both our sense of taste, smell, tactility, audition and visual, it is amongst the most multisensory activities that we engage frequently everyday (Dorothy, 2014). Hence, the chosen area for the final project will be the tasting area called Tasty Bug. The motivation behind this is that tasting can incorporate complex combinations of sensation and stimulate different sensors and areas of our brain via different chemical feeling factors. What we describe as flavour is actually an integration of both multiple senses such as: smell, taste, colour, temperature, and texture of the food. A multisensory dining experience can provide more sensory pleasure when eating and it is designed to allow users to immerse themselves deeper into the dishes and the environment.

Visitors of this space will be able to experience a multisensory flavour perception and their feeling of hunger will be triggered through different senses. The aim of the design of this space is to show the visitors that the act of eating is not as simple as we experienced in everyday lives but rather a multisensory experience.

This area constitutes an important part of this project because of the complexity of different senses involved while we eat. In the following section, we will illustrate the role of each sense in detail and how they are related to the sense of taste.

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3.1.2 HOW VISUAL AFFECT OUR TASTE Our sense of taste can easily be fooled by our vision. Studies show that our brain can tell us different tastes simply by alternating the colour of the food, and humans always use visual cues to identify and justify the quality and taste of what we eat (Konicaminolta, 2006). For instance, it has been shown that the stronger the colour the more sweetness we will perceive. Conversely, the lack of colour in food can cause a decrease in flavour even for those foods we are familiar with (Chudler, 2020). We will incorporate this into our design, the colour of the lighting from the environment will vary according to the taste of the food in order to enhance the visitors’ experience when tasting the food.

In addition to that, some studies also show that one’s hunger can be triggered effectively simply by looking at food or watching cooking. This effect is explained from the physiological point of view, when our brain receives visual signals of a delicious food, it will trigger the release of ghrelin into our bloodstream and cause a spike in our appetite. Ghrelin has another name, the “hunger hormone”, it is produced in our stomach and is responsible for stimulating appetite. This effect will be utilized in our design, the orders from the visitors will be handled by robotic technology and the food making process will be exposed to them so that they can see the entire process of cooking, triggering their feeling of hunger and appetite.

3.1.2 HOW OLFACTION AFFECT OUR TASTE The sense of smell is strongly related to our sense of taste. If we were to block our sense of smell, the food would taste bland. This is because when we chew food, odour molecules enter through the back of our nose and stimulate our brain so that the taste can be enhanced. For instance, aromas of vanilla can lead to something we perceive as sweet to taste sweeter. Researchers have also shown that once an odour is experienced simultaneously with a flavour, they become intrinsically linked and thus the two can influence each other (AMERICAN, 2008).

In this space that we designed, different flavours of scent such as vanilla, lemon, cheese, etc. will be released to the environment according to the food on the table to enhance the overall multisensory experience.

Food-related scent will also be applied to this area to trigger the visitors’ feeling of hunger which helps increase salivation and release of the gastric acid.

We believe this will help make their dining experience more unforgettable.

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3.1.2 HOW TACTILITY AFFECT OUR TASTE Another sense that is always accompanied with taste is our sense of touch. Even though little is known about how our tactile stimulation interacts with the taste, one aspect of this is how the taste of a particular food can be alternated by its temperature. For instance, a melted ice-cream is too sickly to drink whereas it can be pleasantly sweet when it is cold, the taste of an ice-cream is fundamentally linked to its temperature. Some other examples include beer which becomes bitter when it is warm, and ham tastes saltier when it is cold (Uddin, 2016).

Another aspect of how tactile affects our taste lies in the environmental temperature. Study shows that environmental temperature has been suggested to affect appetite regulation. Our appetites can get stimulated if we were in a space with cooler temperature as it leads to a drop in our body temperature and consequently more calories are required to maintain body temperature (Morrison, 2015). This will be incorporated into our design by lowering the temperature in the space to further trigger the feeling of hunger of the visitors.

3.1.2 HOW AUDITION AFFECT OUR TASTE Sound is the forgotten flavour sense. Our auditory can be an important part when it comes to tasting. It allows us to sense the texture of the food through biting or crunching it (Spence, 2015). The sound gives us information on how crunchy a food is and thus affects our appetite through our sense of hearing. Studies show that higher-pitched sounds are associated with sweet and sour while lower-pitched dissonant sounds with bitterness; staccato sounds with crunchiness and smoothness, legato sounds with creaminess (Wood, 2021). We will utilize this by playing music tracks designed to enhance specific flavour in food.

To further elevate the dining experience, we will also invoke autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) associated with the sound of chopping, sizzling, grinding or frying foods. ASMR is a term used for experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It can possibly lead to a relaxation of emotions by choosing the suitable source of sounds across individuals. The audio-visual appeal of ASMR has also been proven to be a major stimulus to grow one’s appetite and get the body ready for food (Y.Cheung, 2018).

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3.2

DESIGN FEASIBILITY

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3.2.1 ODOUR STIMULATION CHAIR An air pump system will be implemented in this structure even though it is usually being used to inflate things such as bicycle tyres. The mechanism of an air pump system works as follows, the air is pushed down the tube when the cylinder is compressed and then flows into the tire via a valve (see Fig. 1 for illustration).

The chairs will come with a small air pump system underneath it so that when the users sit on it, food odour will be released into the surrounding environment. On top of that, the concept of a smell wall installation will also be adopted here to deliver the scent through the pumping system, visitors will need to compress the pump in order to release the scent (TOOL, 2019).

Fig.1

3.2.2 SENSOR CHAIR The chairs will also have a sensor installed to automatically detect the presence of a user and adjust the desired height for the users with respect to the dining table. This sensor is a pressure sensor consisting of a pressure-sensitive element which can determine the pressure being applied and components to convert the information into an output signal (Variohm, 2019). Another technology that will be implemented here is called the occupant classification system (OCS), it is able to detect the passenger presence and weight. It can further distinguish whether a child or teenager is in the seat or even a non-living object. This technology is usually adopted in vehicle designs to decide whether the airbag should be deployed during an accident (Center, 2017).

The pressure sensor can be found as an element being used in KLM’s bonding buffet (see Fig. 2), twenty stools surrounding the 4.5 metres high table were equipped with a pressure sensor, with every traveller that sat down on a stool, it lowered a little, until the stool fully seated then only the table would fully lower down (Amsterdam, 2017). Therefore, by implementing the OCS along with the pressure sensor, it can also identify if a non-living object has been placed on the seat.

Fig.2

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3.2.3 ROBOTIC KITCHEN A robotic kitchen is a new technology designed to provide assistance or perform common kitchen tasks. These robotic devices are capable of handling work ranging from ingredient preparation, cooking foods, and serving dishes. They are usually anthropomorphic and can feature different customized appendages. This idea of implementing a robotic kitchen in our space is inspired by Spyce Kitchen developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016. It is the world’s first restaurant featuring a robotic kitchen for meal preparation (Albrecht, 2020).

Upon visitors entering this space, they will be directed to a bank of kiosks to place their order. Once the visitors have completed their purchases, the order will be sent to the robotic kitchen and the food preparation process will begin. This process works as follows, first the essential ingredients will be tossed into a cooking pot connected to a rotating device from the bottom (see figure 3).

After setting itself into the cooking position, the rotating device will start rotating the cooking pot and tumble the foods constantly to provide nice and even sear. This step is also accompanied by induction heating controlled by a temperature control unit to ensure it does not overcook the food.

The entire cooking process takes around three minutes or less. When the food is perfectly cooked, the cooking pot turns into the serving position and pour the food onto the dishes. It will then go through a cleaning and sanitizing cycle before handling the next order. The dishes will be sent to the customers using a conveyor belt (see figure 4).

The entire process is fully automated and avoids human contact with the food entirely before the dishes are served. The visitors will be able to witness the entire process we described above, and this will help trigger their feeling of hunger. Since we will mainly focus on selling healthy bowls that do not involve difficult and complex cooking tasks, this robotic kitchen will be very suitable.

FIG 1.4

FIG 1.3

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3.3 DESIGN REASONING

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3.3.1 MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION DINING The main idea behind a multisensory dining is to focus on treating all five senses in equal footings so that an immersive experience can be achieved to enhance the flavour of the dishes. The visitors are able to understand and appreciate the importance of their different senses and how the environment can influence the overall dining experience. The importance of having multisensory dining is for us to become aware of how each of our senses are constantly and unavoidably engaged while eating.

This space is designed to stimulate human’s multisensory senses while eating, it shows the visitors how different senses can influence their appetite and how each sense works coherently to contribute to their dining experience. We believe that multisensory dining can focus on treating all the senses together to achieve an immersive experience that is designed to enhance the flavour of the dish and enhance our dining memory.

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3.3.2 SOCIOPETAL FORM On the other hand, we also aim to stimulate human interaction by forcing them to sit together on the sensor-installed chair in order to lower down the table and exercise together on the bike-powered blender to grind fresh fruit juice. Thus, sociapetal form of designed will be inserted into my project which promote social interaction, such as circular seating arrangements and a comfortable ambient room temperature. The circular configurations sits are designed for visitors to have conversation easily while waiting for their orders and provide an exciting dining experience. Everyone is forced to face each other sitting around the round table so none will be left out from the conversation. Getting someone’s attention can be easily accomplished and everyone can participate. A round table also provides a feeling of openness which actually encourages us to converse with others and makes for a far more pleasant experience (Simon, 2021). Some other advantages of using seats arranged in a circular configuration include providing a wider view of the dining area so the visitors wouldn’t feel the compactness and it also allows people to move around freely without bumping into each other which could affect their dining experience.

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3.3.3 TRIGGER HUNGER & APPETITE As previously mentioned, the food will be prepared by robotic machines. The entire process from preparing ingredients and cooking will be exposed to the visitors.

We will use the visual information associated with this to trigger the feeling of hunger among the visitors. The colour of the lightning will also change according to the food on the table to enhance a certain taste. To better elevate their dining experience, the temperature will be set at a suitable temperature to further stimulate visitors’ appetite. As we mentioned in the previous section, sounds with different pitch can trigger a certain taste, hence the music track will be pre-programmed in coordination to the food they are eating. The odour stimulation chairs will help stimulate their olfactory senses as the food odour is being released.

We expect that the visitors might feel tired after experiencing so many sensory places, and the feeling of hunger can easily be ignored. Therefore, before dining, the action of triggering their hunger and appetite is necessary, this includes a series of activities such as small exercises and smelling the food odour as this will help to enhance their dining experience within this space.

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CHAPTER 4

4.1 CRITICAL REFLECTION

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4.1.1 IMPORTANCE OF MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION Multisensory integration allows us to use different sensory modalities such as sound, smell, taste, touch, and sight to have meaningful perceptual experience. However, the importance of this has been ignored by modern society as visuals slowly dominate many aspects of our lives under the influence of social media and technological advances. This issue is exacerbated because there rarely exists any methods designed to awaken human’s multisensory. A multisensory perception does not only help us gain a deeper understanding of the world around us, but is also essential to our physical and mental health. The ignorance of multisensory has yielded many problems but the most significant one is the trend of the so-called “instagrammable” places. These places are specifically designed to attract eyeballs and fulfill modern society’s desire to post pictures on their social media. The overwhelming amount of “instagrammable” places is slowly changing the way we engage with spaces and how architecture practices are executed.

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4.1.2 STRENGTH OF THE PROJECT The objective of this project is to bring the public’s attention to the importance of multisensory in space design and architecture. Not only aiming at providing a pure multisensory installation experience, but we also want to merge the natural world with it. The reason behind this is because our multisensory system was first developed mainly to gain knowledge of the natural world around us and help us survive. Listening to birdsong, walking barefoot on grass, touching leaves with our hands, and breathing in the scent of the forest, these are proven to help significantly reduce our tension and pressure gathered from busy life. All five senses work coherently in order to immerse ourselves in the natural world to the fullest extent. In this project, we hope to awaken visitors’ memories with the natural world through multisensory experience and allow them to escape from the busy world.

Besides focusing on multisensory experience, some spaces in this project are also designed to stimulate human senses individually. We believe this will better illustrate the importance of each sense and how they are inherently connected to each other. For instance, different smells can make us feel different emotions and may trigger pieces of memory in our brain, the same happens with our sense of hearing. When we encounter a new environment for the first time, the information rushes into our brain through all five senses. How does this space appear visually? What is this scent floating around? Is the space chilling or hot, humid, or dry? What kinds of sounds are coming from the corners? We humans are full-body sensors, and our feelers are out every waking moment, helping us to gain as much knowledge about our surroundings.

However, one should note that overwhelmingly sensory information can make us confused and tired.

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4.1.3 WEAKNESS OF THE PROJECT The weakness in this project lies in the lack of spaces specifically designed to allow the visitors to reset their senses before entering the next space. One way to solve this is by creating some small spaces between different sections so that people can rest and refresh their senses whenever they feel necessary. This way they could enter the next space with a clear mind and wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by all the sensory input.

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4.2 DIRECTION FOR THE FOLLOWING SEMESTER

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4.2.1 CONNECTION OF MULTISENSORY WITH NATURE

4.2.2 SOCIAL INTERACTION

The main idea behind this project is to help establish connection between the visitors and the natural worlds and to promote the importance of multisensory experience. We believe this space will connect to everyone spiritually because as humans we are all spontaneously connected to the natural world from the day we were born. This space is suitable for different ages of people to spend time and relax.

Especially for kids, this space is designed for them to learn the usage of their five senses and to stimulate different areas of their brain which can lead to enhancement in their learning memory. Multisensory stimulation can also be beneficial for senior citizens by improving their well-being. It was shown multisensory stimulation can help recall their positive memories, reinforce their relationships with their loved ones and can help reduce anxiety or depression (J.Legg, 2020).

Besides promoting the importance of multisensory, human interaction also constitutes a major part in this project. We want to create a space that reinforces social interaction and creates more bonding between the individuals.

For instance, the sociopetal seating concept was adopted for the dining area; the seats are arranged in a circular configuration to encourage fact-to-face conversation between the visitors. The sociopetal space concept will also be largely applied in this project. These are some of the objectives that we hope to incorporate in the following semester.

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4.2.3 EMPTY SPACE Although having multisensory elements in architecture and interior spaces can help redirect human ways of perceiving the beauty of a building, an overload in sensory inputs might bring side effects. Sensory overload happens when all five senses receive more information than the rate our brain can process. When our brain is overwhelmed by information rushing in, it may enter fight, flight, or free mode in response to what feels like a crisis, making us feel unsafe or even panicky (Brennan, 2021). When a person feels anxious or already overwhelmed, they may be more prone to experiencing sensory overload in certain situations. This is identified as the main weakness throughout this project. Therefore, in the following semester, more consideration has to be put into this topic so that we can provide a space that not only stimulates multisensory but also allows visitors to refresh their senses. One way to solve this is by creating some small spaces between different sections so that people can rest and refresh their senses whenever they feel necessary. This way they could enter the next space with a clear mind and wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by all the sensory input.

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